Biomimetics is copying design from nature. The Biomimetics for Innovation and Design Laboratory (BIDLab) has developed a method of searching for design strategies used in biology through natural language tools. This thesis explores different aspects of this BIDLab search method and tries to find ways to improve the results for any designer using this method. Three main aspects will be explored; the relationship between functional keywords used in engineering and in natural language, application of the BIDLab search method to a micro assembly problem and application of the BIDLab search method an encapsulation method. Conclusions from these studies show that complementary use of lexical dictionaries such as WordNet and a standard functional terminology are very helpful in obtaining good biomimetic analogies. Function definition also greatly affects quality of results and should be adjusted accordingly when good biological analogies are not produced.